Psych
by Kirrithian
Summary: The Eleventh Doctor, alone once more, tracks down a small band of Daleks on what should be a thriving human colony, and turfs them out. A year later and he's back to find no law, no order, no tower. Can he correct his mistake? Or did the Daleks win?
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Doctor Who.

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**Psych**

Chapter One**:  
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The world was dark, people hid in the shadows. Between the chimney tops of Argon Five, the triple moonlight glinted off the rooftops, and a wind whipped up, accompanied by a great grinding noise. Merging in harmony with the great machines beneath.

The resultant wind spattered against the tower that stretched out above the metropolis, the top window permanently covered in cloud. The singular occupant glanced around at the sound, before returning to the screen in front of him.

"What?" He exclaimed to no-one in particular, tearing off the scrap of paper now protruding from the machine, and storming out from the study, hopping up the spiral staircase, pausing only to bang on the door; Solid metal airship doors. Phelk adjusted his long cloak, bowtie and top hat, before banging on the door again. With almost reluctance they slid open and Phelk strode into the bright metallic surroundings brandishing the piece of paper.

"More! You want more!" The occupant of the room swung its eyestalk to gaze at him and replied in a grating metallic voice.

"YES." The Dalek kept its eyestalk trained on Phelk as he paced across the room.

"How? There are no more. Every man, woman and even child on this world are working on your 'Project'. There's no-one else left for me to 'recruit'." The Dalek continued its relentless staring, the lights on its domed head flashing in reply.

"WE MUST HAVE MORE PEOPLE." Phelk sighed and knuckled his forehead.

"We could bring in people from other planets, that way we'd get better stock, but it'll bring increased costs, higher risk of detection by the shadow proclamation and greater overcrowding."

"THAT WOULD BE… ADAQUATE."

"Right. I'll need extra funds to cover shipping costs; a lease to build more accommodation facilities and another floor 'tween me and-" Phelk gestured downwards "-them. I've got a headache again."

"IT IS INADVISABLE TO EXTEND THE TOWER VERTICALLY. THE STRUCTURE WOULD BE UNSTABLE."

"Blast, and they're never anything but miserable." Phelk kicked a metal panel, irate, and glowered at the patch of wall which would normally be a window. "Six months until it's finished. Too long if you ask me." Phelk growled and stood there for a few more minutes. He frowned, and then laughed disbelievingly, causing the Daleks to look at him. "Sorry," He apologised, "but I thought I just heard singing!"

"Yeah, that would be me!" The Doctor slid into the room. "The décor reminded me of this fantastic Viennese opera I went to in 1890." The Doctor sang a few notes. "Just couldn't help myself. Hope you don't mind me letting myself – front door was wide open and I wanted to talk about how you've enslaved a whole planet."

"Who is this man!" Phelk demanded.

"IT IS THE DOC-TOR! EXTERMINATE!"

The other Daleks joined in the chorus, getting into a frenzy.

"I'm here to shut you down." The Doctor lifted up the device in his hand- It's not a jammy dodger, but a small rectangular dark blue box with the sonic screwdriver protruding from a circular receptacle just off centre. The Doctor yanked out the screwdriver, chucked the box to Phelk who automatically caught it and legged it with a cheery 'Night night!' the walls around him flashing with the beams from the Daleks guns. Phelk looked at the box in his hands in terror as the light flashed once more, and went out, along with every single other light in the room, including the Daleks. Phelk had barely time to register this, his headache searing. The box dropped to the floor, his hands flashing to his head, letting out a yell of pain before collapsing to the floor.

Far below the Doctor whooped as he slid down the central banister of the staircase, his cheerful cry changing in a yell of surprise before crashing into and taking out the roundel at the bottom. He quickly picked it up and passed it to a footman who stood nearby, watching him in amazement.

"There you go, you're free. No more-" The Doctor pointed upward. "- they're out of business. Go party!"

The footman broke into a grin and ran outside.

The Doctor leant against the TARDIS, enjoying the sounds of jubilation and party, the first few fireworks bloomed above the rooftops, he ducked into the TARDIS, and a moment later the great grinding noise rang out, merging with the continued fireworks, and a wind whipped up with a flash of lightning, the wind rushed out outwards, gusting over the rooftops of the factories towards the tower which swayed and creaked.

The motion stirred Phelk as he rolled himself over, disorientated by the lack of light and the resultant apparent lack of ceiling, he slowly stumbled to his feet, cursing the lack of light, windows and occasionally 'that ruddy Doctor' as he inched his way round, bumping into stationary Daleks, workstations and finally the metal doors, still firmly shut. More cursing followed as Phelk made his way back towards the workstations, finding it rather too soon and was sent sprawling over the console, hitting nearly every button on there before slipping off the end snagging a lever as he went. There was a whir and the lights returned, revealing the maze. Phelk rushed over to the door, slamming the now obvious door button, and flinging himself out as soon as they parted far enough.

Behind him the eye of a Dalek that was connected to the main console lit up and swung around.

Phelk rested his head against the cool glass of the window in his study, trying to work out what had happened. A wind whipped up. Phelk checked round for open windows when he realised it was also accompanied by a roaring that grew and grew and grew, making the walls rattle and the floors shake and quiver. With a horrid sickening realisation Phelk realised what was happening.

"NO!" He yelled in terror, hurtling up the spiral stairs, reaching the top just to see the Dalek ship wrench itself off into the clouds, the wake nearly dragging him from the tower then and there if he hadn't been clinging onto the railings of the stairs for dear life. He remained there, frozen in fear and shock, clung to the railings tighter than a limpet whilst around him the tower creaked and settled, and creaked again. There was a jolt, as though falling out of bed in the morning, and a wind slowly picked up, rushing through the cloud by Phelk, gradually gaining in strength, a wind Phelk realised as they broke through the bottom of the cloud cover, that wasn't so much rushing past him as he was rushing past it.

He yelled in terror as the golden disc of the Dalek ship hurtled past him, spewing out fiery death upon the people below. The tower swung round, a wide looping sweep that was slowing their downwards progress, and revealing the terror spreading across the world. He clung on as they swept over the eye, a large lake that supplied most of the water for the area, and the lake in which the foot of the tower almost stood. Phelk watched as they whipped round, so close to the single ridge the place had he could almost touch it. It was low now, spinning barely above the rooftops and once more over the lake, when an errant Dalek ray hit near the base of the tower, severing it with a violent jolt that finally flung Phelk from his perch, sending him flying over the water battered by a deluge of noise as the tower twisted, crumpled and shrieked, merging with the bangs of gunfire from the Daleks and the screams of terror with the crackling of fire.

And the brief rush of the waves before he plunged into them head first.

Phelk had rarely gone swimming, and the world beneath was dark, cool and quiet. He almost rested for a moment before kicking out to the surface, treading water and watching as the Dalek ship vanished into the clouds for a final time.

A while late Phelk staggered onto shore, quickly heading to a nearby house and knocking on the door. It was flung open.

"Good lady I found myself in the lake and need to borrow a change of clothes."

"You! It's you from the tower!" She turned to grab a long knife from behind the door and turned back to see an empty street. She shouted out after him.

"I'll kill you, you filthy mind slug!"


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Doctor Who

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Chapter Two:

One Year later.

The Doctor sat on the quayside. Argon Five had changed, and, as he popped another Rascabian wood nut in his mouth, the Doctor was trying to figure out how.

"You ought to be more careful mister." The voice came from a petite blonde female leant against the buildings. "Don't know what sorts are around here. Bandits, thieves, the sort who'd take advantage of foreign ones like you." She looked at the wallet containing the psychic paper, which she'd nabbed earlier when he was in the market.

"Sounds like you need to look after your belongings down here Camilla." The Doctor replied, flicking through her wallet.

"Hey!" She lunged for it, but the Doctor moved it away.

"Trade?" The Doctor asked, and she reluctantly handed back the psychic paper, grabbing back her wallet, checking through it, and satisfied nothing was missing, shoved it back deep into her pockets. She turned to leave but paused as the Doctor was looking at the wallet she'd taken, holding it up various ways, and giving it a shake.

"'Scuse me mister, but why are you here?"

"Because my ship landed here. Again" Camilla came and sat by the Doctor.

"You've been here before? Why on Argon would you return? Ships are few enough, what with the bosses fighting all the time. Enough of us would be glad to be plain shot of the place. Why return?"

"Because my ships landed here, and I think I know why." The Doctor shook the psychic paper.

"Why do you keep that with you? It's just a random scrap of paper."

"Not just any paper, its psychic paper. Anyway, didn't there use to be a tower over there? Last time I was here…" The Doctor rambled on whilst Camilla reeled in shock. Psychic? Tower… then he must be the man they warned her about, returned to where he'd began after all this time. She quietly got up and left, without him noticing- he was still talking- and whilst he did she had to warn the others.

"But obviously I missed something last time, not just the tower going. I missed something Camilla." The Doctor looked round to see where she'd slunk through the houses, a small alleyway. "I missed you leaving."

"Are you sure girl?" The burly figure demanded of Camilla.

"Yes Pa. He was a stranger and was going on about the tower."

"Any strangers might be interested in the tower; it may be the only thing of any interest around here."

"He also had something he called psychic paper."

"What?" Camilla's Dad growled. "Are you…" Camilla nodded vigorously. "Where is he?"

"I don't know. As soon as I realised who he was I came straight it you. When I left we were still on the quayside."

"The man would hardly stick around there."

"He might be at the tower."

"Go and check. I'll start gathering the gang. If he's not there we can always hunt him down. Go."

Camilla went to leave when her father called her up.

"Actually meet us at the tower. If he is there then make sure he doesn't leave before we get there."

"Got it."

Camilla skirted round the open area in front of the tower. The man was there, sat on the benches, still eating those nuts. He didn't look like the ruthless mind bending slave driver she'd heard him to be, but then appearances could be deceptive. Steeling herself she ambled over.

"Hey sorry for disappearing off like that earlier- my Dad would have worried where I was. Apparently growing up doesn't stop them from being a worry guts."

"Don't worry, it's great to see you again, in fact I was wondering what you could tell me about this tower."

"What?" Alarm bells began to ring in Camilla's head.

"Oh just how it became so…" the Doctor indicated the height of the remains of the tower, now barely reaching above the rooftops. "… Un-tower like. Last time I was here it was rather more vertical."

Camilla tried to work out what this meant, shutting her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but when we met earlier I didn't catch your name."

"Oh yes, may fault. I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor…" Camilla tailed off.

"Just 'the Doctor'." He confirmed.

Camilla shut her eyes, realising her mistake, and they flashed open again as she heard her fathers voice, just beyond the square.

"Doctor, I've made a big mistake." Camilla grabbed hold of the pack of nuts in the Doctors hand. "You've got to get out of here, go, hide!"

"Camilla!" The mob appeared at the edge of the square with knives and torches, lead by her father, who called again. "Get away from that man!"

Camilla stayed with her back to the mob, and knocked the nuts out the Doctors hand with a shriek, giving him a kick in the rump as she 'fell' over to get him moving. The Doctor ran, and the mob charged after him. Camilla got pulled back onto her feet as her father reached her, and they ran to return to the front of the mob, conversing between breaths as they went.

"You okay?" Her Dad yelled over the roaring of the mob.

"Yeah, a slightly sore backside but he'll pay for that!" Camilla accelerated, chasing the Doctor, separating from the pack.

"Be careful." Her father called after her. Camilla didn't reply, focusing instead on not losing sight of the Doctor. He was a fast runner and although Camilla was acknowledged as one of the swiftest runners around, it was only her knowledge of the paths and alleyways that kept her gaining on. She wished he'd stop running and hid- she was running out of energy and finally stopped at a cross roads, spotting the Doctor hiding behind a large blue box down the right hand alley. Hearing the mob gaining on her she bent over and puffed and panted as if out of breath. Her dad and the mob caught up, them too catching breath at the junction.

"Which way did he go?" Her dad asked, and Camilla pointed down an alley, away from the Doctor. "Excellent work girl, you have a rest, we'll take it from here." The mob headed off and after waiting for a few stragglers to disappear, Camilla wandered down the alley to find the Doctor casually leant against the other side of the blue box.

"So what was that all about?"

"Nothing, just a case of mistaken identity."

"Mistaken identity? With who?"

"Another man, one who has rarely been seen for a year, one who was also at the tower that day. The man who created a world of slaves, bending the minds to work. A ruthless slave driver. Worked us half to death and kept telling us to be happy about it. Now they reckon he's the one killing off all the people who are disappearing."

"People disappearing?"

"Oh yeah. Been going on all over the place for almost a year. Reckon he's been trying to stay hidden. Not too many people would take kindly to encountering him and I reckon they try and do off with him, so he kills 'em. Bloody violent and doesn't care two ways about snuffing the families either. I heard Dad say he was a 'Local area Psychopath'."

"Local area psychic. There's a distinct difference." The Doctor and Camilla leapt in alarm at the figure appearing round the corner of the Tardis.

"It's him, Phelk!" Camilla exclaimed, her fists clenched into a bunch, body tensed ready for a fight.

"Now Camilla, you said yourself he probably only killed those who attacked him. Let's see what he wants first." The Doctor reasoned, and Camilla reluctantly relaxed, though still keeping a sharp eye on Phelks every movement.

"Thank you. I've made myself known to you because I wished to speak to the Doctor. And really, I must protest my innocence. I have killed no-one, it is a set-up, although exactly whose I do not know."

"Why should I believe that?" Camilla challenged.

"There are many gangs on this world. It would suit any and all of them if they had a scapegoat to hide their kills behind."

Camilla glowered at Phelks reply, the Doctor saving the moment by interrupting.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"A year ago: you nearly killed me."

"Noo, that thing was just a simple EMP bomb, no explosion, just cuts out the electricity." Phelk was shaking his head at the Doctor. "No? What happened?"

"When I came round, everything was dark, pitch black, the doors sealed. I managed to turn the lights back on: I had to escape."

"You did more than turn the lights back on- you turned the power back on, rebooted the ship."

"They took off, leaving me behind."

"The tower."

"It fell." The Doctor looked up at Phelk.

"And you survived."

"It landed in the lake. It was lucky no-one was hurt." At that Camilla exploded.

"No-one got hurt! Your friends in the spaceship didn't just 'take off'. They stuck around blasting here there and everywhere. People died. It was terrifying, and it was your fault, so you can take your 'no-one was hurt' and stuff it! Those are words that'll never exist around you." Phelk blinked in surprise at the onslaught and pointed a finger at the Doctor.

"He started it."

"Children!" The Doctor intervened, stepping between them as Camilla made to lunge towards Phelk. "I'm here because last time something happened, something that I missed. This world should be blooming, instead there are gangs, angry mobs and unexplained deaths; I'm here to put that right, and you two are going to stop arguing and help me."

"Says who?" Camilla turned on the Doctor. "You two have both caused trouble to this world: why shouldn't I just turn you over to the mob?"

"Phelk you're coming because we can help each other, and Camilla, I reckon you'll come because you're curious."

"If I 'come along', it'll be because I'm keeping tabs on him." She pointed at Phelk, whose eyebrows shot up. The Doctor sighed, resigned. Camilla almost smiled at her victory, but stopped herself just in time. "What now?" She asked the Doctor.

"Who's in charge around here?"

"No-one. Not officially since the tower broke. There are a few bosses of groups that seem to control various areas, like my Dad."

Phelk and the Doctor looked at Camilla.

"Can we meet him?" The Doctor enquired, and Camilla scoffed.

"No! He'll have your heads as soon as see you!"

"Worth asking. Anyway everything seems a bit too organised, especially for mob rule: Do they still run the factories?"

"The ones that are left. From what I've seen many have been converted into housing and storage. My travels have landed me in more than a few of them." The Doctor nodded in agreement.

"I need to get to the Tower. I think the next piece of this puzzle lies there."

"It's very open there Doctor," Camilla warned. "And watched. The mob'd easily find you again."

"Then see if you can do something about it." Camilla narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. "I promise not to move from here whilst you're gone, and if you're really worried take that as insurance." Camilla caught the psychic paper and after the briefest of pauses, left. Phelk leapt to his feet as soon as she'd gone, and was looking around intently.

"We should take our chance and leave now Doctor. She'll bring the mob on us for certain."

"No she won't. Anyway, we could always hide in my ship."

"The singing box." Phelk laid a hand on the Tardis.

"I did wonder about that. She's called the Tardis by the way. If you're a local area psychic you pick up the resonate hum of her engine- stronger as you get closer. Not singing in the conventional sense but could be easily mistaken. Of course in the tower, because of my connection with the Tardis, it would have resonated through me. It's why you're really here isn't it?" Phelk nodded sorrowfully.

"Ten years of sheer misery and a year of pure hate. It's nice to hear a different tune."

"Is that why the Daleks kept you? Because of your psychic powers." The Doctor asked.

"How do you know?"

"The Daleks are ruthlessly efficient. They only do anything if it suits them. What did they need you for?"

"Psychic energy. Communication. Told me they had crash landed on this world and lost contact with the rest of their fleet. Plan was to construct and run generators to re-power their ship, repair it, and then use that energy combined with the psychic energy collected from me to send a message home."

"Very… illuminating."

"That helped?"

"Yes. I now know almost exactly what I'm looking for."

"Good." Camilla stated making the two of them jump. "Because I've just sorted our tower problem."


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Doctor Who

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Chapter Three:

"I've just sorted our tower problem but we don't have long." Camilla turned and headed back into the alleys, beckoning for them to follow. They passed relatively silently through the streets, edging towards the square in front of the tower in a roundabout route, pausing as they finally reached the edge of the square , the Doctor almost getting out his sonic screwdriver, ready to start searching before being hissed an impatient 'Not now!' by Camilla, who after several checks, lead them in a dash across the square and into the tower itself, relaxing once she was sure they'd got inside with no-one noticing.

"Very clever." Phelk commented, looking around the dilapidated foyer he'd hadn't left through when the tower was destroyed.

"Thank you." Camilla caught the concerned looks the Doctor was throwing at the door. "No-one will come in here Doctor, everyone hates it too much. You needed somewhere near the tower to hide, I got you the tower itself."

"Good work."

"It was just a matter of bribing a few watchers, but we shouldn't tarry anyway. Start searching Doctor."

The Doctor complied, drawing out the sonic screwdriver and getting to work, talking as he did.

"Phelk said the Daleks- they're the creatures that were in that spaceship- that the Daleks were planning on communicating with their home planet, and the Daleks never do anything wasteful. So why build a tall tower at all?"

"Oh I had these headaches, the height helped." Phelk explained.

"Nah. For you, for a bit of pain? The Daleks wouldn't have bothered. Think what use a tower would be in communication."

"Boost the signal, to broadcast it."

"Yes and where were they going to send that signal from?"

"The Dalek ship."

"But…" The doctor egging them onwards, but they stared at him blankly. "There's little point in building a focuser, then just standing on it to send your message."

"The message was going to be sent from the bottom." Camilla concluded, and joined Phelk in look around nervously at the ruined entrance hall, the Doctor holding his screwdriver level for a moment before correcting them.

"The very bottom." He slowly pointed the screwdriver down at the floor. It started beeping loudly. "Another psychic container, like the one that would have been at the top."

"There's another Dalek ship?" Phelk exclaimed. "Like the one…" He pointed upwards.

"I'm afraid so. At a guess it's the one that actually crashed. We need to get down there, find out what the survivors are up to. Have a look around; see if we can find any access points in here." The Doctor started buzzing away, and Camilla set to, searching around disused cupboards, but Phelk just stood there and watched.

"There won't be." Phelk answered. Camilla ignored him and continued checking anyway. "The Daleks never showed themselves in public. That's a reason everybody hates me so much. They didn't realise that I also had ruthless masters." Camilla continued her search, giving no sign of having heard him, and they passed a few moments in silence until Camilla returned and declared the complete and utter absence of anything that might lead to beneath the tower.

"But we need to get down there. It's definitely down there. We need to get underground." The Doctor argued.

"There are a few tunnels around but they are all closely watched, and there's no guarantee they'll lead to the ship anyway." Camilla pointed out.

"There's the lake." Phelk pondered, thinking of the eerie calm it had held that year ago.

"Too wet. Underground. Under- ground." The Doctor mused.

"How about six feet underground?" Camilla asked.

Phelk looked at Camilla seriously.

"But that's a bit far isn't it?" He asked.

"They could have made their own tunnels." Camilla offered in return, and then pulled up short at the Doctor who was looking at her, and had been trying to understand what they were talking about. "The Dump. Rubbish dump and cemetery of this place. It's all piled up, and then dropped into a big hole in the ground."

"Sounds like a plan. Where is it?" The Doctor asked.

Camilla beckoned the Doctor up the stairs.

"I'll show you."

The three of them emerged at the top of the steps, the floor that now served as the rooftop now barely rose above the rooftops. Beyond them in the distance the ridge rose up, and Camilla pointed it out.

"The Dump is partway up that ridge, where it flattens out a bit." Camilla looked at the Doctor for confirmation that he saw where she was pointing out, but he had grown quiet, more thoughtful, and moved towards the edge of the roof, slowly looking around.

"That's what I missed." The Doctor looked at Camilla and Phelk mournfully. "Camilla, what's actually at the Dump? How does it work?"

"Oh, there's a pair of large trapdoors. Everything gets piled up and then the trapdoors open at regular intervals, removing the rubbish underground."

"Metal trapdoors?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes."

"Doesn't get tarnished or damaged even though it's got several tonnes of rubbish passing over them each day?"

"That's right."

"The metal a faded gold colour, like the other Dalek ship?"

"What?" Camilla was surprised. It was right again.

"This world was perfectly terraformed: Circular, flat, perfect for building on. But this world has one lake that is natural, not dug out like all the others. Why? Because early in the process something crash landed here. It formed a large crater, a great big hole."

"And we're putting our rubbish in part of that hole?" Camilla asked, but the Doctor shook his head and continued.

"The terraforming continued, the program automatically adjusting to work with the new surroundings, covering up the ship, forming a few hills, a lake. An overlooked oddity on a flat world. No-one spotted it because you wouldn't understand it if you didn't know what you were looking at."

"And what are we looking at Doctor?" Phelk asked.

"A crater with the Dalek ship in the middle."

"Yeah, we knew that." Camilla moaned impatiently.

"No, you're still not getting it: it's the scale." Camilla and Phelk looked at each other, confused yet again. "Phelk you said the Daleks were producing energy to repower and repair their ship: but they had the whole world producing energy: Didn't that seem a little out of scale?" The Doctor looked intently at Phelk, who shrugged.

"It's alien tech. Could've needed more energy than our stuff." He said simply, and the Doctor growled in frustration at how Phelk had come up with a simple, yet wrong explanation for that oddity.

"But that shows what sort of scale difference there is, shows you what this is." The Doctor was waving his arms frantically at the surroundings.

"Doctor, just tell us!" Camilla exclaimed, accompanied by a vigorous nod from Phelk. The Doctor pointed towards the ridge.

"What I'm trying to tell is that that ridge is not the edge of the crater, but the edge of the Dalek ship itself!"


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Doctor Who

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Chapter Four:

Camilla gasped and they stared at the ridge in stunned disbelief.

"Doctor," Phelk finally broke the silence with. "If that is the edge of the Dalek ship, and we are directly above the psychic store, where is that store in relation to the rest of the ship?"

"The centre." The Doctor said simple, and Phelk looked around on more, trying to mentally trace the edge of the ship around where they stood, trying to take in the scale of the thing.

"It's huge!" Camilla exclaimed. "It's under the whole area!"

"Yes." The Doctor started to explain. "It's a Dalek battleship- When compared to the other Dalek ships; this is a Ferrari whilst the other ship is barely a boot. A lot bigger and a lot more dangerous."

"We've got to destroy it, and any of these Daleks that remain." Camilla stated.

"Agreed, and this time we do it properly. No faffing around with EMPs Doctor." Phelk challenged.

"Right. No faff. You two are amazing." They looked at him curiously. "I've just told you that you're standing on a Dalek battleship that could at any moment take off, destroying most of your world, or start spewing out Daleks intent on killing everyone on this planet, and you're standing there, saying you'll take them on singled handily without the slightest bit of hesitation, barely a quiver. I can't work out whether it's because you're brave or you don't know what you're getting into."

"Well Doctor, I'm doing this because I have nothing to lose." Phelk stated.

"Whereas I have everything to lose if I don't." Camilla finished.

"Well then, we need to get to the cemetery!""

Camilla checked her watch, her eyes widened and she dashed to the edge of the roof to look out over the square, where the mob was congregating again. She cursed.

"We've spent too long here. We'll get caught if we leave out the normal route and there's no back door."

"We're trapped?" Phelk asked.

"No, we're not because there is always a way out." The Doctor stated, looking at Camilla.

"Okay, let me rephrase: there's no conventional back door."

"But there is a way out?" Phelk continued to ask, glancing nervously at the crowd in the square.

"Even better than that: A way out that leads directly to where we want to go to." Camilla was peering over the edge of the building, a side unseen by the people in the square. "You tow need to jump into this cart, and as soon as you get down there you need to stay in the cart and play dead. I'll catch you up later." With that she took a few steps backwards, started a run up and made a huge leap across to the roof of the nearest building, disappearing along it as she traced the alley below, searching. The Doctor quickly made his way to the edge of the roof, to see the cart Camilla had mentioned.

"Oh." He stated, realising Camilla's plan, but accepting it and lowered himself over the edge and dropping into the cart.

"Oh?" Asked Phelk, slowly making his way to the edge of the roof. "What do you mean oh? - oh." He saw the cart, and before he decided otherwise he leapt over the edge and landed in the cart below, winding the Doctor with a great Oof! As he landed on top of him. Phelk hastily tried to pull the cover over them.

"Stop wriggling!" Phelk hissed at the poor Doctor who was still trying to regain his breath. "Someone's coming." The Doctor fell still, and all was quiet under the sheet of the cart apart from the quiet sounds of their breathing, and through a gap they watching the hunched figure with another body slung over the shoulder draw closer. The body was dumped in the side of the cart, away from the Doctor and Phelk.

"Are you both okay in there?" Camilla's voice hissed from under her cloak.

"Yes." They both replied.

"Good, now stay still." She adjusted the cover so they were well hidden, and pulled her hood down and started pulling the cart, inducing a number of curses about its weight. Beneath the cover the Doctor and Phelk whispered.

"Is she okay?" Phelk asked. "Shouldn't we…?"

"I should probably help her. If you went out there you'd cause a riot. Again." The Doctor replied. "I just need you to shift off me so I can…"

"And silent. Quiet as the dead." Camilla's voice came pointedly through the canvas, before continuing to an unseen passer by. "It's why I like this job so much, he-hehe!" They trundled on in silence for a bit longer, before the Doctor started to wriggle again.

"What are you doing?" Phelk hissed.

"There's something digging into my back."

"Oh, I can tell you what the pain in my back is-ooohh!" Both Phelk and the Doctor let out a yelp as they jerked over a pothole, and up the top Camilla found herself on the wrong end of her payback as a muscular young bloke was looking at her with concern. She bent over even more and put a hand to her back.

"Oooh, ooh my back!" She said in her best 'old' voice. The lad rushed over.

"Are you okay?"

"Oooh, my back's gone- it was that pothole that did it, ooh and I was nearly there."

"I can help you pull the cart if you want." The lad offered.

"Would you? That'd be lovely dear, you're an absolute charm."

Phelk and the Doctor stayed perfectly silent as they rolled up the hill at an increased pace, gritting their teeth at the increased number of lumps and bumps they were getting.

"I can manage this bit thank you." Camilla watched the lad go, and whispered to the cart "You two hold still for a bit longer, you're not safe yet." And hoping that'd be enough to stop them from messing around for a moment she headed to the nearby guard for the compound.

"Afternoon sir." She grasped his hand, giving it a shake and slipping a few coins into it as she did so, and pulling him close to talk softly into his ear. "I've got a couple of lads who've caught a lift how they shouldn't. Some general amnesia and a turned back would really help me out my friend." The guard half nodded and straightened up, slipping the coins into his pocket, quickly counting them before answering her.

"Pleased to meet you. Head on in, the next dump is in ten minutes so you'd better hurry friend." The guard winked and turned stared fixatedly at the road. Camilla rushed back to the cart, ignoring her hood when it fell down. She tore back the cover.

"Up you get you two. We've only got ten minutes." She helped pull them up off the cart, then got Phelk to help her lift the carts owner off- she was still unconscious and the Doctor flared up as soon as he saw her.

"You weren't meant to hurt anybody!" The Doctor exclaimed, turning on Camilla.

"She'll come round in a while; we'll leave her with the cart. She won't remember a thing, and we'll have done her delivery fro her. She'll be fine." Camilla folded and returned the cloak to the woman before she leapt up and started swinging the cart around and pulling it onto the dump, pouring it contents onto the rest of the pile before leaving the cart outside by its owner. Klaxons blared out across the site and they dashed round the other side of the largest pile of rubbish, hidden from the entrance.

"What's that?" The Doctor yelled above the racket.

"One minute warning." Camilla replied.

"This is it. Three of us against a Dalek battleship. Abandon hope all ye who enter here." The Doctor joked.

"We can hope for the best." Camilla stated.

"Well I'm hoping for a soft landing." Phelk put. A loud horn added to the klaxons. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.

"Here it is!" The Doctor said excitedly.

Four. Three. Two. One.

"Geronimooooo-oh." The Doctor looked around in disappointment as nothing happened. Then there was the quietest of snicks, the trapdoors slung open and they fell in cascade of rubbish and dead bodies, into the bowels of the Dalek battleship.


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Doctor Who

* * *

Chapter Five:

Camilla coughed and rolled over, feeling the cold grid metal of the floor before blinking her eyes open to reveal the short circular corridor they were in, the doors shut at each end, apart from a slight crack at one end where Phelk was keeping watch. Gingerly she sat up, feeling sore all over.

"What happened?" She asked the Doctor, who was sat nearby.

"A pretty rubbish landings by all accounts, but you're fine, no broken bones, maybe some concussion." Camilla flinched back as the Doctor shone the sonic in her eyes.

"Hey," Camilla protested. "I remember us on the trapdoor."

"And after that?" The Doctor asked, pulling the sonic away, and twirling it in his fingers.

"Um…"

"Lucky you." Phelk commented from the other end. "It wasn't that enjoyable." The door started grating open, the Doctor absentmindedly tapping the sonic. "Doctor!" Phelk exclaimed, trying to stop the door from opening further, desperately holding it back.

"Oops." The Doctor frowned, flicking through the settings of the sonic in an attempt to shut the door again. The door hissed shut, but the Doctor was shaking his head. "We'll have to move, the Daleks would have spotted that for certain. Are you okay with that?" The Doctor asked Camilla, offering her a hand, to help her to her feet.

"Yeah I'll manage. I'm no softie." Camilla directed the last comment at Phelk, who raised his eyebrows, earning himself a glare. The moment passed and they both looked at the Doctor who opened the door at one end, looked around before beckoning them to follow and slipping through the door. Silently they dashed through a number of corridors all almost suspiciously empty, lulling them into something of a false sense of security, causing the Doctor to almost run into the next Dalek they came across. He quickly flagged the other two to stop and hide, and they ducked into a dark alcove, watching as the metal sentry drifted pass, its blue eyestalk sweeping side to side, searching around as it went. It disappeared around the corner and the hiss of a door shutting behind it signalled the all clear, Camilla taking the opportunity to push Phelk out of the way and promptly be sick in the corner, causing Phelk to withdraw further in disgust, the Doctor rushing over.

"Camilla what is wrong with you? You'll get us caught!" Phelk exclaimed.

"I remember, Daleks, after the trapdoor…"

The trapdoors opened, and they fell in a cascade of semi-rotten rubbish and carcasses. It seemed a short fall and they landed in a pile of rubbish, trying not to get buried as the latest load rained down on them. When that had stopped they could see they were in a long deep concrete channel of rubbish that was slowly drifting down the slope to a large bowl, where it was then pulled down a funnel in the centre, a funnel from which a solid grinding noise emanated.

"We need to get out of here, come on." Phelk lead the way to the edge, getting through the rubbish by using a half wading, half swimming motion; reaching up and grabbing the edge of the wall, pulling himself over with ease, looking around the empty room.

"It's clear." At that the Doctor and Camilla started their escape, pulling themselves up the wall. Phelk ducked behind a workstation as a door hissed open and there was a whir as a Dalek came out of the shadows, spying the Doctor who was half over the wall. Camilla had just lifted herself up, and could see the Dalek over the other side of the wall. She let out a yell of shock, loosening her grip on the wall, but also alerting the Doctor to the presence of the Dalek. He fell off the wall as a beam from the Daleks gun stuck where he had been, blasting a hole in the wall and knocking Camilla back into the flow of rubbish.

"Doctor!" She shouted, and he jumped back up, looking over the wall to see where Camilla had got to, rolling out the way before the Dalek had another shot at him and at the same time keeping pace with Camilla. He shrugged off his jacket, chucking it to one side, drawing off the attention of the Dalek for another moment, a data bank near to where Phelk hid exploding in a shower of sparks. Seeing a few wires hanging out the broken panels Phelk had an idea. Carefully grabbing some wires and the Doctors jacket he snuck around to position himself behind the Dalek.

Camilla had nearly reached the bowl at the bottom of the chute, and the Doctor leant over the wall and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the edge as behind him the Dalek lined up its next shot, and fired.

Concrete battered the Doctor as the wall beside him shattered where the Dalek shot had gone wide, a large chunk of wall knocking him and Camilla's hands apart, finally sending her into the bowl. To start with she was pulled around the edge, pushing her way to stay in the one spot, the Doctor rushing round to pull her out. But the walls were higher and their fingers barely reached.

Behind them Phelk was wrestling with the Dalek: He had flung himself out the darkness at the Dalek, causing its shot to go wide, whilst using the Doctors jacket to cover the eyestalk so it couldn't aim at the Doctor, and then ducking as the gun swung round towards him, quickly and deftly working to attach the wire to its gun, wrapping one end of the wire to the spokes around the side of the gun, and shoving the other ends, knotted together down the barrel. Phelk grabbed the Doctors jacket and ran back to the Doctor, hoping it had worked, but half expecting the shot punch into his back.

As soon as it could see the Dalek locked onto Phelks retreating back, swung its gun around and fired, the Dalek case lighting up with a flash as the shot backfired- travelling back along the wire. The Dalek had exterminated itself, but Phelk concentrated on getting to the Doctor.

"I can't reach you, it's too far!" Camilla shouted, and then gave one last huge push upwards, fingers slipping through the Doctors as she fell back down again, this time being pulled underneath the tide of rubbish.

"Camilla!" The Doctor yelled.

Phelk arrived, barely pausing as he grabbed the Doctor by his braces and his legs and shoved him over the wall, dangling him there so he could reach Camilla. The Doctor thought little of getting a face full of rubbish but reached down and searched around for Camilla, grabbing hold of her arm and pulling her upwards, getting a better hold and giving Phelk a couple of what he hoped would be interpreted as 'pull me out' kicks. Slowly he felt himself begin to rise, and was soon out from under the rubbish along with Camilla who was unconscious. Soon they were all out, and the Doctor had checked that Camilla was okay with the sonic.

"She's fine but still out of it." The Doctor declared.

"Doctor, we need to get out of here." Phelk insisted, eyeing up a potential exit. The Doctor spotted Phelks handiwork with the Dalek and eyed it critically.

"Yes, good idea."

Camilla watched the Doctor and Phelk intently as they filled in the bit she'd been out for, trying to keep from being ill again at the memory of drowning in the rubbish, that crushing, stinking weight.

"The Dalek triggered your memory." The Doctor stated, and Camilla nodded. "But it wasn't just of the incident was it?"

"That's right."

"Déjà vu." The Doctor said simply. "The first Dalek triggered a memory. You've seen them before."

"Déjà what?" Phelk asked, but was left unanswered so continued. "And you can't have seen the Daleks before; they've never shown themselves to the people, except for me."

"My dad… After the tower fell he came to own, well control a large area: most of this area around the tower, and they use tunnels to meet in secret, the Bosses of the various areas. One night I followed my dad down to the basement, hidden, and this huge metal thing's there- a Dalek. Dad was angry at it, I don't know why, but after that he seemed distracted. My dad. Then the first load of people went missing- he knew some of them."

"It was the Daleks. Looks like they didn't need Phelk to keep control of their planet." The Doctor pondered.

"They think I'm dead." Phelk countered.

"Then maybe this is plan B. It's probably best they're kept thinking that though- could be useful." The Doctor bounced up and started inspecting the ventilation grill in the alcove.

"Wait, do you mean the Daleks are still in control?" Camilla asked.

"Yes." The Doctor gave his brief answer and then got back to work, Camilla pulling him back round to face her, then slapped him.

"Then you lied. We were never free." Camilla complained. The Doctor looked at her aghast.

"That's not true! Maybe things haven't changed as much as you might've wanted but you've never been as free as you have been in this past year have you?" Camilla nodded in agreement. "The Daleks may think, may seem to have control of this planet, but I'd willingly bet that if push came to shove then the Daleks would find out how tentative that control really is. The humans own this planet, the Dalek control is just an illusion, and we're the ones who will break that illusion to them." The Doctor waited, gazing at Camilla until she broke into a smile, and then he went back to work on the grating, it falling off with a satisfying clunk.

"Right in we go, Camilla you're at the back," The Doctor declared, and then added, "Don't lose my psychic paper, I'll want that back."

"Wait what?" Camilla looked at the Doctor and Phelk in confusion.

"We're getting closer to the centre of the Dalek ship so we'll run into more Daleks. Now aside from the obvious problem of them killing us we don't want them to catch sight of Phelk so we're going to get there using corridors that they don't. Use." The Doctor explained, hovering round for a moment to make sure it had gone in, before Phelk decided to add a bit to his explanation.

"And you're at the back so you can replace the grate. We can't really turn around in there, we'd just get stuck." The Doctor clambered into the vents as Phelk explained to Camilla before he too climbed into the vents, pushing the Doctor along so Camilla had space to put the grate back, which she managed to do, positioning herself carefully so that she could wriggle back round to follow the Doctor and Phelk.

"Oh, by the way," Phelk turned slightly to see Camilla. "The other reason you're at the back is don't we don't have to crawl through your vomit if you're sick again. You smell bad enough as it is."

"You're not that pleasantly odoured yourself." Camilla had a thought. "Doctor if we're –as we are- particularly odiforous, and we're in the ventilation system of the Dalek ship, won't the Daleks smell we're here?"

"Oh no, Daleks can't smell, and this ventilation system is just to keep the electrical systems cool. We'll be fine."

"That's interesting." Phelk pondered aloud, looking at some of the wiring and pipes that ran just inside the ventilation ducts with renewed interest.

"Dalek can hear though so shh!" The Doctor scolded. "This way, come on!" They moved onwards around the corner, and Camilla paused, pulling the psychic paper out of her pocket. Good, she still had it. She looked around the corner at the retreating backside of the Doctor and Phelk, and impulsively flicked open the psychic paper. To her surprise there was a word on it. VENTILATION. She looked around, back to where they had entered, shoved the paper back into her pocket and hurried after Phelk and the Doctor.

In the passageway the Dalek glided to a stop, its eyestalk fixed firmly on the grate, its non-existent mechanical expression as always giving nothing away.


	6. Chapter 6

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

Chapter six:

They crawled along in silence. Spotting an opportune side duct, Phelk wriggled into it and beckoned Camilla past, which she did obligingly, but giving him a look as she passed, having not forgiven him for the earlier comment, she paused as she caught him fiddling with one of the wires running along the inside, attaching another wire to it from his pocket. He spotted her watching and raised a finger to his lips then wriggled further into the duct so she could pass more easily. There was a clunk and the panel swung out from underneath him, dumping him down a hidden duct, the short vertical drop levelling out, sending Phelk flying towards another grate, which after a moments panic yielded, and he cannonballed out landing in soft dry dirt.

"Phelk are you okay?" Camilla's voice drifted down the duct. Phelk took a moment to look around the large cavern he'd landed in. It was a huge underground factory, filled by large machines that were connected by hundreds of metres of pipes, leading to numerous silos and storage containers. Phelk ambled back to the wall and called up to Camilla and the Doctor.

"I'm fine. There's a whole cavern down here: a whole factory. I'm going to have a look and see if I can't find something to get me back up to you." With that Phelk headed into the factory searching around, ignoring the Doctors calls behind him.

"Be careful down there!"

Camilla shoved the Doctor back into the main duct.

"It's crowded enough in here without you sticking your head in the way."

"Sorry." The Doctor apologised. "Did he say cavern?"

"Yep." Camilla looked at the Doctor, already ahead of him. "The Dalek ship crashed. I guess they decided to build themselves in for the long run."

"But why? The Daleks never do anything for no good reason, un-less it's a fabricator- breaks the rubbish down into component parts and rebuilds it into useful parts."

"Repairs?"

"Yes and other things." The Doctor sighed

"More Daleks?" Camilla suggested, reading his quiet annoyance and making an easy guess.

"Yes." The Doctor replied curtly, and Camilla started to ask another question but the Doctor beat her to it. "Daleks go to all the trouble to break the materials down into their component parts because Daleks made directly from humans just would be Dalek. They would be flawed, and to the Daleks it would be a waste of time and resources to make an imperfect Dalek."

"Wow. That's just…" Camilla contemplated that for a moment, before poking the trapdoor down to the duct Phelk had fallen down, letting it swing back. "If Phelk find the fabricator controls then maybe he could make a rope and get back up here."

"Really? What my paper say about it?" The Doctor indicated that she should hand it back, which she did reluctantly, and he looked at it, expression not changing a bit. "We're going to be here a while I think, now tell me Camilla," The Doctor stretched out, lying along the duct, staring at the roof. "What do you think of Phelk?"

"Phelk? He's a…"

Below them Phelk was busy, wedged partway up the gap between two silos, performing some DIY with a machine he'd quickly cobbled together using the fabricator machine, rope or other means of escape far from his mind. He didn't know how much time he had to sort his little plan out before one or both of the others decided to come and see what was happening. Seconds after the though had crossed his mind, there was a clatter from over by the duct and Camilla spewed out, quickly jumping to her feet and dusting herself off, looking around for Phelk.

Phelk, who was still hidden from view for a short while, quickly finished attaching the device, punching in a code on the he'd attached with it to the silo before disengaging himself from his perch, dropping to the floor. He had a brief look around before heading back towards the main controls of the fabricator, only then calling out to Camilla.

"Over here!" He called, and Camilla made her way over, finally spotting him and homing in like a hawk.

"The Doctor sent me to see what was taking you so long. Is that the fabricator?" She demanded.

"Yup." Phelk was making himself busy, tapping in commands, busy creating himself another item.

"You can use that thing?" Camilla asked, astounded.

"Yeah, had to upgrade the interface a bit, but it works for me." Phelk shook the keypad in his hand, one end crudely attached to a half ball that jutted out the machine. "But I've had ten years of practise with this sort of system, hacking them too. I'm just deadlocking the controls so the Daleks can't keep using this thing, and converting the control to a single device which should…" The machine clunked and whirred, and a pocket sized rectangular device that looked suspiciously like a mobile phone was spat out of the machine and Phelk picked it up. "Ta-da! One bargaining chip. Whole area seals itself as soon as this leaves it and hopefully we can trade it back to the Daleks in exchange for them not exterminating us. Clever huh?"

"Very good." Camilla leapt as the Doctor appeared behind her, eyes on the device in Phelks hand. "But I'd be happier with one little adjustment to it." The Doctor indicated that Phelk should give it to him. "Phelk, let me have the control." Phelk remained frozen, motionless. "You can have it back afterwards, I promise."

"Doctor!" Camilla exclaimed, but the Doctor ignored her, focusing on Phelk as he held the device. "Phelk," She shouted. "I knew we shouldn't trust you!"

Phelks head pounded, and for a moment he shut his eyes, trying desperately to shut out the buzzing in his head, eyes flashing as he realised the buzzing was being echoed in front of him, and seeing the Doctor buzzing at something with his screwdriver, Camilla paying absolute attention to what he was doing apart from the singular second it took to throw a dirty look at Phelk, who spotted what they were fussing over- it was the control, there in the Doctors hand! It jolted him out of his daze as he realised they'd switched it with a mobile- the crafty little minx! Phelk discarded the mobile and filled the time by returning to the controls and dismantling the keypad and stored it out of the way.

"Done!" The Doctor called cheerfully behind him. "I just added a little virus to erase all trace of Dalek technology: Now even if they do get your control Phelk, they'll find this machine barely more useful than the junk that's providing its materials. Anything they try to make that's Dalek, well let's just say I hope they like hats." Phelk held out a hand for the control, and returned it straight to his pocket.

"Hey!" Camilla exclaimed, aghast that the Doctor had actually given the device back to Phelk. "Shouldn't I have that? After all, if there's any bargaining with the Daleks, I should do it. After all, I'm most qualified out of us down here to speak for this planet."

"It's my planet too and I'm more senior than you!" Phelk argued in return.

"Maybe, but after what you did there isn't a single person left up there who would willingly have you speak for them. By keeping that control you're insulting every single person up there. I wouldn't be surprised if you used it to bargain you're way back onto the Daleks side. The control should have been given to me." Camilla argued, directing the last part at the Doctor.

"I made a promise." He replied, apologetic. Camilla huffed and stormed out the room, barging past Phelk as she did so, almost knocking him over. The Doctor came over and they watched her go.

"I deserved that."

"She's just upset." The Doctor said. "And I said that she could come on a trip in my ship when we finish sorted the Daleks out and she thinks you're getting in the way."

"She nicked the control."

"Yes, I saw."

"It's getting worse, even she can hear it now." Phelk looked at the Doctor. "We're getting closer. Is there a plan?"

The Doctor looked at Phelk in silence, before heading off after Camilla, leaving Phelk stood, hand curling around the control still lying snug in his pocket, before he too followed, the large round doors to the cavern rolling shut after him, loud thunks echoing around the small space of the corridor as they lock and sealed themselves. The Doctor checked they were as Phelk said deadlock sealed with the sonic.

"Deadlocked, good." The Doctor looked at Phelk. "She went in there." He indicated a doorway with a sign that read 'research lab' above the door. It was a large room with a low ceiling, systematically filled with table upon table set out in a perfect regiment, each table strewn with the parts of a different experiment. The Doctor was already leaping and hopping around, looking at various experiment around the place, peering with intense interest at some and giving whoops of delight at others. Phelk realised the Doctor would be distracted for a while, and quickly spotted Camilla for himself, working her way around the room, heading closer to another doorway into an adjoining room.

"It's a research lab." The Doctor called across to Camilla, who mouthed an impatient 'I know!' to herself, looking up briefly to give the Doctor a smile, seeing he was already interested in some of the closer experiments and herself picked up something that looked like a completely black Rubik cube, whilst the Doctor repeated himself, causing Phelk to point out that it'd been spelled out above the door. She gave the cube a few twists and turns, but nothing happened. Disappointed she held it to her ear and gave it a shake, disappearing for a second before reappearing, looking at the cube with a new admiration she stuck it in her pocket and heading cautiously over towards the doorway to the next room.

"What are you making here?" The Doctor asked, gazing down the eyestalk of an empty Dalek dome rested on a bench in the centre of the research, Phelk watching him, bored.

There was a yell of surprise from the adjoining room, and a moment later Camilla poked her head sheepishly around the doorway, trying to pretend she hadn't been surprised at all, but her voice gave her away, a tad higher than normal.

"Doctor…" She coughed, her voice returning to normal. "Doctor, I think there's something in here you ought to see." Camilla retreated back into the room, and the Doctor followed, curious.

"Ah, now that is interesting." This room was smaller, square and only had one thing in it. The object standing alone in the middle of the room was striking in two ways; it was a very deep black, parts of it seeming to simply absorb the light; it also looked very much like a Dalek, albeit a Dalek with no visible extremities, no eyestalk, no gun, no plunger, not even any lights on top of its dome. Just a hint of light let into relief the spread of half balls around the lower half of its base and the thick metal grilling where the gun usually lay.

"Doctor…" Camilla edged around the room, trying to have a good look at the Dalek.

"I know, feels like it's watching you. Spooky."

Phelk quietly closed the door as the Doctor got up close to the thing in the room, having finished buzzing over it with the sonic.

"What are you?" He asked softly.

"I AM DA-LEK AU-TO-MAAATE!"


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own Doctor Who

* * *

Chapter Seven:

"I AM DA-LEK AU-TO-MAAATE!"

The machines voice exploded by the Doctor, causing him to leap backwards. On the dome of the Dalek automate was a digital blue oval- like an eye, Camilla snuck around behind it, freezing as another blue oval appeared, focused on her.

"It's seen me!" She exclaimed.

"But it's looking at me…" The Doctor argued, and Camilla walked around to where the Doctor was stood, the blue oval following her and merging with the Doctors at the front. The Doctor then walked around the Dalek himself, the eye following him as well.

"You've got eyes in the back of your head! What are you? A sentry? A guard? An experiment? You're no Dalek."

"I AM DALEK AUTOMATE."

"The shell of a Dalek?" The Doctor guessed. "But you've got no weapons, what's to stop us from walking out of here right now?" The Doctor turned towards the door, Camilla joining him, passing Phelk. "Come on Phelk." Phelk stood where he was and as soon as the Doctor was within reach of the closed door there was a few clunks, and it was locked, the screwdriver having no effect.

"THE INTRUDERS WILL BE ESCORTED TO THE CONTROL AREA." The Dalek voice ran out from all around them, the walls themselves vibrating like speakers, the sound reverberating around the room.

"I OBEY. YOU WILL STAND BESIDE ME!" The Dalek Automate spoke, its eye pulsing as it did.

"Why? You're not armed!" Camilla challenged. "Doctor, let's get out of here." The Doctor set to work on the door, but the room started to vibrate again, but this time it wasn't a Dalek but the gate grinding noise of ancient engines, overlapped by itself again and again, merging, building into a crescendo.

"It's the Tardis! Many Tardis?" The Doctor looked at the sonic in surprise at what it was telling him. "What!"

"I said, what is happening?" Camilla shouted into the Doctors ear, the noise of the Tardis getting almost unbearably loud.

"It's my ship- it's materializing again and again, each materialization barely milliseconds apart, but perfectly timed so there's one ever one version of the Tardis materialized in this area at any time.

"But why?" Camilla asked as the sounds reached a crescendo.

"The materialisation sites form a shape, a message, for me." The Tardis started to finally dematerialise the noise fading away, the Doctor stood gazing at the ceiling longingly.

"What message?" Camilla asked, a little bit too loud for the silence that had fallen. The Doctor pointed a finger straight upwards, towards the ceiling, for the Tardis had made a shape, the base of which was the ceiling above their heads and from there it stretched up through the many layers of the Dalek ship, two parallel lines guiding the Doctor like a plane coming into land, towards the control room at the top, where it truncated the arrowhead.

"We go with the Dalek." The Doctor sounded resigned, and reluctantly went over to stand near the Dalek, Phelk already by its side. Camilla just stood there stubbornly. "Camilla," The Doctor said levelly. "My ship is a time machine: it can travel anywhere in space or time. That being so it can get very dangerous being in the same place twice. Accidents can happen; you meet the wrong person then BAM! It can unravel time, change it, and destroy it. Getting the same ship to appear that many times in such a small area could've risked tangling the fabric of time and space potentially destroying the entire universe and its timeline. At some point I will have decided that it was worth that sort of risk just to give the now us that one important message. Would you ignore that?"

Camilla held the Doctors piercing gaze for a minute, before also coming and standing beside the Dalek. The floor they were on began to rise, the ceilings of the consecutive floors parting in turn to let them through.

"You've got this place set out very regimented, very square rooms. Cubic." The blue oval focused on the Doctor, whilst behind it, crouched down unnoticed, Camilla gave the cube four twists and disappeared. "Predictable too." The Doctor continued. "Every level will lead in the same direction, same route to the exit."

"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE." The Dalek stated.

"Course I won't." The Doctor looked behind the Dalek, apparently at the floors flashing past them. "Wouldn't dream of it."

They arrived, slap bang in the middle of the enormous central doomed area of the ship, a centre usually full and full of bustle, but every single Dalek had stopped, every single gun and eyestalk focused on the arrivals in the centre, silent and motionless as the Doctor leapt off the piece of floor where the lift had been.

"Hello! Glad to see you at last, maybe it's again, who knows? I bumped into a few of your friends earlier and I found your Dalek Automate, you're factory lab and you're swimming pool." There was still no response from any of the Daleks. "That's really weird." The Doctor said almost to himself, and then continued. "But never mind all that because this," The Doctor pointed into the corner of the room strewn with control banks and filled with a large square container made of thick metal. "Is your psychic capacitor and to me," The Doctor continued heading over towards it.

"Doctor." Phelk called out a warning.

"Not now Phelk, to me it looks like…"

"Doctor!"

The Doctor paused to turn and call back to Phelk.

"What is it?"

Phelk indicated with a nod of the head towards the psychic capacitor. The Doctor looked between the capacitor and Phelk a couple of times.

"I was getting there anyway, stop interrupting me!" The Doctor turned back to face the capacitor. "Their psychic capacitor, which as I was saying appears to be active." The Doctor took a step towards it, walking straight into a force field which he quickly realised was part of a containment field that had been set up whilst Phelk had been distracting him. He buzzed it a few times with the sonic, which had little effect. Around him the Daleks had suddenly started moving again.

"THE DOCTOR IS SECURE. WE SHALL PROCEED." A bright red Dalek with dark grey metal protrusions glided into sight, the way other Daleks kept a close eye on it and got out of its way indicating that it was in charge.

"Great so this whole charade is organised by a giant killer post box. Tell me, why am I here?" The Doctor demanded.

"TO BE WITNESS. TONIGHT WE WILL BROADCAST TO SKARO, CONFIRMING OUR CONQUEST AND THE DOCTOR DEFEATED: THE DALEKS WILL BECOME GREATER THAN EVER!" The Dalek finished its piece and turned away, heading towards the Dalek Automate.

"We'll see about that." The Doctor said, causing the red Dalek to swing its eyestalk to look at the Doctor for a moment before it continued on its way. "Tell me Dalek, how did you know where we were?"

Hidden under her shield, Camilla looked at the Doctor in confusion. What?

"How else could the Daleks have avoided us?" The Doctor continued, and the red Dalek stopped and looked at the Doctor.

"SOURCES INDICATE YOU KNOW THE ANSWER."

"That's a no then. Ah well, up to me to explain then." The Doctor paused for effect, looking around for an audience. "They're psychic. First worked out how to store it, then they collected some and played around with it down in their lab of theirs until they got it working for themselves. Another reason for the construction of the tower, and keeping the planet full of people: To block out the noise from their experiments. Must have perfected it a couple of years ago, but it was probably still being tweaked when the lot at the top went, so they never got the product, but you've been busy since, upgrading. Ooooh, don't think that'll go down too well with the home planet. Upgrade the master race? Ha!"

"THE UPGRADE IMPROVES COMMUNICATION."

"Still the same voice though." The Doctor joked.

"COMMUNICATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR VICTORY. WITH THE UPGRADE WE HAVE CAPTURED THE DOCTOR WITH EASE. THE UPGRADE WILL BE WELCOME."

"Oh, so I'm a trophy! We started using glasses and look what we caught!" The Doctor laughed. "Your little psychic trick; it won't always work for you. Although talking about psychic tricks, it's how you've been controlling us, directing us, controlling Phelk."

"What?" Phelk asked, surprised.

"Not for the whole of the last ten years though: you didn't have the technology, and anyway Phelk was power hungry enough to want to run what he thought was just a tough business. But you gained control- Phelk may be the one who's naturally psychic, but he's just a receiver: all it took was for you to give suggestions, commands. Would work strongly enough if it was delivered connected with an emotion, I wonder which one? But it worked. Enslave a world, delay us going into the ventilation, then it got a bit too strong, started influencing the others who were around: Made me lead us into the ventilation, and convinced Camilla to lead us to the labs." The Doctors face fell, and he leant his head against the edge of the force field, realising his mistake. "Psychic commands that can get you to enslave a world, control where you go and betray your friends." The Doctor turned to look at Phelk.

"What?" Phelk asked, confused. The red Dalek watched the Doctor, and replied to his explanation.

"CORRECT." The Dalek swung its eyestalk round to bear on Phelk. "YOU WILL TELL US WHERE THE GIRL IS."


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Doctor Who

* * *

Chapter Eight:

"CORRECT." The Dalek swung its eyestalk round to bear on Phelk. "YOU WILL TELL US WHERE THE GIRL IS."

The Doctor nodded slowly.

"Even your Dalek automate is linked into the psychic field, and it saw all three of us in the lab anyway."

"She had a cube." Phelk blurted out, and the effect was almost instantaneous: a blue wave flooded the room, causing the Doctors force field to flicker briefly but hold, and revealing Camilla, who was still stood quite close to the Doctor, holding the cube.

"Emergency shielding device by the looks of it. Another of your 'upgrades'?" The Doctor asked.

"IT IS A PROTOTYPE." The red Dalek swung round to face Camilla. "THE GIRL IS NOT NEEDED." It declared. "EXTERMINATE!" The whole area exploded with noise as the rest of the Daleks joined in the chorus, and Camilla had to shout to make herself heard.

"No! If you destroy me you won't be able to use your factory." Camilla held out the control she'd nicked from Phelk. "We locked all the doors, the machinery to this device: Exterminate me and you'll exterminate your chances of ever being able to us that machinery again!" The Daleks abruptly shut up, the message rippling through, followed as quickly by confirmation of what she was saying. The red Dalek advanced on her and stopped.

"THE CONTROL IS IRRELEVANT. EXTERMINATE!" This time the other Daleks remained silent.

"Actually it's very relevant." Phelk spoke up, the Daleks attention now focusing on him and the control in his hand, a control exactly like the one Camilla had. "Because Camilla there is a thief, a pick-pocket and as you can see, there are two controls. One does exactly as Camilla said- it controls your fabricator, but the other one, well… I set a bit of a booby trap down there, using your fabricator, or rather the materials stored to be used by it. See if I set it off or it gets triggered by other means, then a series of volatile gases would start to escape from the factory, rapidly spreading through the ship via the ventilation ducts, the ducts in which there is another receiver that is timed to produce a very hot spark. Of course that mean that your ship: ka-BOOM! Which leads me to the funniest problem because as she took that control out my pocket without me noticing, I don't know which one's which. Tricky huh?" Phelk finished, and the Doctor looked on, astounded.

"You've conned the Daleks into a Mexican stand off. Amazing." The Doctor commented, the only noise in the area for the Daleks had fallen deathly quiet once more. Phelk let out a yell, his spare hand flying to his head.

"You can stop shouting, I don't know which one it is!" Phelk yelled, half laughing, his brow furrowed in pain. "As good as your communication is, you're stumped because I don't know." Phelk smiled at them, a worrying smile. "A score for the home team I think."

"INCORRECT. YOU WILL SURRENDER THE DEVICE OR THE FEMALE DIES."

The Daleks gun was now firmly pointed at Camilla who, as Phelk swung around to see what was going on, had placed the control on the ground.

"What are you doing?" We had them!" Phelk exclaimed aghast.

"Phelk, your bomb would destroy this ship, tear it apart." Camilla explained.

"Yes, and all the Daleks on it or don't you want that?" Phelk replied.

"No, because this ship is huge, so huge that it forms a large proportion of the land: land that's been built on. If this ship is destroyed it'll collapse, causing earthquakes, huge subsidence; buildings will be destroyed and people could be hurt; there are fifty thousand people living above this ship. I won't do that to them and if you took half a moment to think of them instead of yourself for once then neither would you!" She fell silent, returning her gaze to the barrel of the Daleks gun.

Phelk watched her, hurt by some of her comments, clutching the control tightly, he looked to the Doctor for support.

"You don't shoot the messenger." The Doctor stated cryptically. What a useless load of… Phelk thought, pausing. The messenger, Phelk realised. He walked over and laid his control beside Camilla's, only the slightest of twitches betraying his urge to pick the both of them up, he conveniently positioned himself between Camilla and the red Dalek.

"Fine, you win that one, and I'll do your little message for you, so long as you can guarantee that she'll be safe." The red Dalek gazed impassively at him, and Phelk stood there gazing back unblinkingly for a few minutes. The Doctor yawned rudely, breaking the silence and a force field descended over Camilla. Phelk inspected it, and then half nodded. "Okay, what do I need to do?"

The red Dalek swung its round to rest on the Dalek automate, which hissed and the front half split open into four parts, revealing a brightly lit seat within. The message was clear enough and Phelk slowly walked over to it, taking a moment to run his hand over the sleek black body. He moved round to the front and like a king taking his place on the throne, he sat down. For a moment nothing happened, almost driving Phelk to the point of asking what he was supposed to do next when the case hissed and began to close. He yelped and tried to get out, but thick metal bands reached out, pulling him back and securing him so that the case could close without trouble. He was sealed from view, silent.

The blue oval appeared once more on the dome.

"I am messenger. What do you ask of me?" The voice was Phelks, but it sounded odd through the grill: metallic and spaced in an eerie mimic of the Daleks grating voices. It was clear the Daleks were in control.

"COMMUNICATE TO SKARO. BROADCAST UPGRADE."

"I obey. Establishing connection." The automate began to hum, drawing the psychic energy from the capacitor. To one side, still stuck in their force fields the Doctor and Camilla whispered to each other, the Daleks focused on the centre of the room.

"What do we do?" Camilla asked.

"I'm thinking of something, but I can get out of this thing." The Doctor revealed.

"What? How?" Camilla asked and the Doctor stood to one side to reveal the sonic half in, half out of the force field, buzzing quietly.

"I got it in when the Daleks cancelled the shielding. Which is still down." The Doctor paused, listening. "Do you hear singing?" The Doctor animatedly whipped something out his pocket: a key. Camilla strained to listen but could now hear the singing coming through with the hum of the automate.

The automate glowed, and suddenly shot a beam of bright psychic energy upwards, passing harmlessly through the ceiling, the tower and up onwards through the clouds into the atmosphere itself.

"CONNECTION ESTABLISHED." The red Dalek stated, before Phelk started to speak, relaying to all those in the room the message that was being broadcast across the stars.

"This is fleet battleship 44519 report. After the crash on planet designated Argon Five, which caused severe damage to communication and propulsion arrays a permanent base was formed, which by first right of colonisation and by subsequent control of further populates designates Argon Five as under the control and ownership of the Daleks. Subsequently we have used a workforce to enable high level research to be undertaken. This research has concluded in a comprehensive communications upgrade, suggested to be extended to include the entire Dalek Empire. It is this upgrade that has enabled the Daleks of Argon Five to conquer and control this world and even capture our greatest enemy, the Doctor, with ease."

Shivers ran down Camilla's back. Where Daleks had few emotions in their speech, Phelk- the automate was making full use of the range it had, pure contempt oozing from those last few words. She looked across to the Doctor who stood still, listening himself, waiting with the Tardis key hidden behind his back.

"Preparing to upload upgrade."


	9. Chapter 9

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

Chapter Nine:

"Preparing to upload upgrade." The beam of psychic energy increased with a large pulse, and a grate grinding noise signalled the arrival of the Tardis, as all hell broke loose. The red Dalek acted instantly, taking down Camilla's force field and spinning round to exterminate her, but the Tardis was in the way, and to one side the Doctors force field remained intact, but empty. The Tardis started to dematerialise.

Inside the Doctor was rushing around the console, occasionally getting Camilla to hold down a lever,

"What are you doing?" She asked as he rushed past her, grabbing a strange device and attaching it to a growing mess on the console.

"Creating a feedback loop to stop that upgrade getting to Skaro. This bunch of Daleks nearly had me beat with ease, if all the Daleks got their 'upgrade'… Doesn't bear thinking about so don't. This feedback loop, it'll go back through all the upgraded Daleks." The Doctor said, busy with his screwdriver.

"What'll that do?" Camilla asked, reaching across to try and hold down another lever as the Doctor frantically gestured at her.

"Nothing, normally. But the Daleks took their shielding down, and hopefully in the fuss they wouldn't have thought to put it back up again. It'll burn them out." The Doctor concluded, starting to land the Tardis.

"Doctor, Phelks in that thing, it's got the upgrade and no shields." Camilla said softly as they materialised within the clouds. The Doctor looked at her, stopping for a moment.

"We could always use his plan."

Camilla looked away from the Doctor, hanging her head, knowing what Phelks plan entailed, and knowing she wouldn't do it. It was a shame. But she glanced up again eyes widening as the Doctor continued. "But then again, this is his plan." The Doctor laid his hand on an important looking lever, and pulled.

Outside an even bigger beam pulsed its way up towards the clouds partway up beginning to bend and split away from the main stream, curving further and further until just short of the lower edge of the clouds it bent level before being directed downwards, back into the ground where it came from. The beautiful display was oohed and aahed by the people on the surface, but the Daleks in the central room and across the ship didn't notice it until they died, some exploding in a shower of sparks, some screamingly for barely a second before falling quiet and others turning off without a fuss. Within moments not a single live Dalek was left, just the automate in the centre of the room, a single stream of energy still reaching upwards. It was still connected to Skaro, broadcasting pictures too, of the dead and quiet Dalek cases.

"This was Dalek fleet battleship 44519. The upgrade has been cancelled, care of the Doctor, and all the Daleks here are dead." The Dalek at the other end of the communications watched intently. "They underestimated the Doctor, and the technology they used for their upgrade. They underestimated the people on this planet! They were never truly in control, as there are few out there who would recognise them as their true master. They never truly conquered this planet. And this? Their greatest piece of technology and it uses me, a human, to run it! They were never in control, not of the planet or its technology. These Daleks earned no victory and this planet gave you none, and never will." Within the central chamber a bright white glow was building up around the automate, the psychic energy still being released with nowhere else to go.

"My last act is to stop you or anyone else who would wish to conquer, enslave or do harm to this world and its people. A Dalek is a creature with emotions of anger and hate. You did away with other emotions such as fear, it does not belong in your psyche. But Dalek hear me out: Any Dalek or person bearing ill will that comes to this world will fear it, and it will destroy them. It will destroy you." With that the link broke, the bright light cascading back to the automate before blossoming outwards in a perfect sphere, encompassing the whole world before fading into nothing. Above people continued their daily lives, noticing little change apart from the light show. Life went on.

Camilla gazed out over the bustling town, perched once more on the rooftop of the tower.

"Nothing's changed." She said, disappointment clear in her voice.

"The Daleks are gone. I think that's a pretty big change don't you?" The Doctor countered.

"What's happened to Phelk?" Camilla asked. "He's psychic so he probably coped with the feedback better than any of the Daleks."

"Maybe so, but the all psychic energy would have fed back to him as soon as he broke the link. He wouldn't have stood a chance." The Doctor explained.

"You two planned it all along."

"Phelk knew what was going on. Said there was some things we needed to do, others we could do to help. But it's the end result that counts." The Doctor stated.

"So which plan number was the one that worked?" Camilla asked, a cheeky grin sneaking onto her face.

"Including my visit here last year or not?" He replied and they laughed.

"It's a shame he's gone. I'd have loved to know which control was which. I could have made so much difference with control of that fabricator: Now we have to start thinking about what to do with our rubbish. What they have to do with their rubbish. I just have to decide where to go!" Camilla leapt up and almost skipped across to the Tardis. "Come on!"

"Maybe we should tell them to start using the huge, empty and possibly unstable spaceship right underneath their feet first." The Doctor pointed out, then the building shook and there was the loud crack of masonry.

The tremors lasted barely more than a few seconds before dying away, less of an earthquake, more of an impact, and looking down into the square, there in the middle, punched up straight through the middle of a paving slab was Dalek automate- the top half at least. Holding their breath they watched as the domed top swung off, and they first one, then another arm appeared out the top, then Phelk hauled himself up, partway out the device before getting stuck and having to push and wriggle his way out, finally managing it, rolling onto the pavement under the open air, the Doctor and Camilla giving him a cheer from the rooftop.

Phelk acknowledged them with a weary wave before rolling over onto his feet and heading to join them, an unnoticed figure watching him head into the tower before running off to warn the others.

Up on the roof they were ecstatic, Camilla bouncing around with a huge grin on her face.

"He did it! He got out!"

Phelk appeared at the top of the steps and Camilla flew over to hug him.

"You did it! The double crossing, back-stabbing, slave driving mind slug actually did it. Something good for everyone for once. But how did you survive?" Camilla asked, finally letting him speak.

"I siphoned off the energy and made a wall around this world, something to keep the Daleks from ever returning."

"Using leftover psychic energy to.. Oh, it's a Phelic shield!" Camilla and Phelk looked at the Doctor oddly, with no idea what he was going on about. He checked his watch and gave it a shake. "Ah, never mind, too early, just carry on- ignore me." The Doctor tweaked his bowtie and tried again. "A psychic wall; that was a great idea Phelk!" They seemed to accept this a bit better.

"I'm going to go travelling with the Doctor Phelk, isn't that amazing?" Camilla spouted excitedly, before sobering up. "But before I go, there's one thing I wanted to ask: Back there in the central dome, those two controllers, which was the one for the fabricator?"

"Neither. One was the detonator for the bomb, the other was just a mobile phone. The real controller was here all along." Phelk took the third controller out an inside pocket and placed it in Camilla's cupped hands, where she cradled it like pure gold. "You should keep it." He suggested, and when Camilla said nothing still seemingly still entranced by the device he turned to the Doctor. "Doctor, your ship, is there space for another?"

"Yes, why?" The Doctor answered cautiously.

"I can't stay here."

"But you've just saved your world, your own world. You deserve to stay." The Doctor argued, but Phelk was shaking his head.

"I may have saved the world, but they don't know that. To them nothing's changed, I'm still the man they hate and despise, and with good enough reason. For them it would take me several lifetimes of saving their world to put right the wrongs I have done to this world." Phelk explained, a note of sadness in his voice.

"Nothing much might've changed, but I could spread the story of how you saved them." The Doctor and Phelk both looked at Camilla in surprise. "I'm going to stay." She explained. "With this I can do so much to help this world, make it the place it ought to be."

"Are you certain?" The Doctor asked, and Camilla nodded. "Okay then." He turned to Phelk.

"I'm no longer welcome here and even if everybody simultaneously forgot what I did, this world is too noisy for me. I can't stay here. Let me travel with you, just until I find somewhere I can live, or even just drop me off at a station and I can go from there." Phelk asked.

"This is your planet." The Doctor pointed out, and Phelk turned away from him, looking out over the square.

"This whole planet was built for function, rather than form. Those benches you were sat on earlier aren't there to be sat on. There was no room for laziness when this world was built. The purpose of those benches was to slow the progress of any mobs heading towards the tower. I don't want to put that to the test." Phelk said simply, looking at the approaching mob. "I need to go, it's for the best."

The Doctor finally nodded in agreement and headed into the Tardis to start the engines. Phelk turned to Camilla.

"You should leave now, or you'll get caught."

Camilla slyly lifted the cube from the Daleks ship out a pocket.

"Oh, I think I can disappear." She twisted the cube and disappeared, simply nothing more than a gust of wind and a whispered thank you. She had gone and Phelk turned to watch the mob start its final charge towards the tower, its yells melding with the grinding engines of the Tardis into which Phelk ducked, shutting the door behind him, a shout of 'it's beautiful!' filtering through to the surroundings as the Tardis faded away.

The mob had reached the building, the leading figure of the mob waiting back beside the benches. Camilla's Dad watched as they set fire to what was left of the tower, and he blinked as the flames leapt up setting the whole tower ablaze. It was only a moment but Camilla had suddenly appeared in front of him, towering over him somewhat from her vantage point on the bench, with what looked like a mobile in her hand and a determined look in her eye.

* * *

That's all folks! Any form of construstive critisism welcome- I am aiming to improve this piece, and my writing generally.

Thanks for reading!

- Kirrithian


End file.
